Huge Self Storage Facility Fire

Personal possessions are lost in self storage unit fires almost every day but some fires are much worse than others. Take this one in Kilbirnie, New Zealand back in April with hundreds of victims and over 370 units destroyed (images below). The blaze took 24 hours to put out with the upper floor of the building completely destroyed and the ground floor sustaining extensive water and smoke damage. Some of this facilities customers lost high value items such as professional camera equipment and classic cars but when irreplaceable photographs and family mementoes go up in smoke it’s a real heartbreaker.

We will write about how you should evaluate risk when selecting a self storage unit in future posts. This particular site had a resident manager but that didn’t prevent arson and a man will appear in court this month in connection with the fire.